Scott Ian

Swearing Words

Scott Ian – the man needs no introduction. But I’m going to do it anyway…

Scott will be known by even the most fleeting of metal fans as the New York (U.S.A) native and last of the original members of legendary thrash metal act, Anthrax, still active with the band today. Over the years the band has brought us some outstanding releases including the 1987 classic Among the Living, which is still considered by many to be one of the standards against which thrash metal is measured. The band has undergone numerous personnel changes over the decades, but Scott Ian has remained constant.

In 2012, Scott decided to try something different; he started taking some of his personal experiences and recounting them in front of a crowd. Since then, the show has toured sporadically between commitments with Anthrax and spending time with his family. The result has been the Swearing Words shows and following a successful PledgeMusic campaign, which surpassed its funding goals thanks to the support of fans, we can experience the Swearing Words in Glasgow show on DVD. The Swearing Words in Glasgow DVD is a full performance recording, filmed towards the end of the tour run in Glasgow, Scotland.

The show, in essence, is Scott Ian standing in front of a smallish crowd in a fairly personal and informal setting, telling a collection of generally humorous and interesting, sometimes bloody funny, stories about characters including Lemmy, Dimebag Darrell Abbott, Sebastian Bach (well, kind of), Al Jourgensen, and even Steven Spielberg.

It’s fair to say that the Swearing Words show is not a comedy act so don’t expect to be laughing uncontrollably. But, that’s not what Scott is going for, either. His intention is to provide an insight into the sometimes crazy life he has lived for the last 30-plus years by sharing amusing anecdotes and personal, behind-the-scenes experiences which he knows most fans will find interesting, but would otherwise never get the chance to hear.

The highlights of the show are the many recollections Ian has of Lemmy, particularly their earliest meetings, and the Dimebag/Bach/Dave Williams (Drowning Pool) story but really, it’s all pretty fun stuff. The show is followed by a Q and A session, which had some pretty stock-standard audience questions and the low-point of the DVD is probably here. The main issue here is that a lot of the questions being asked aren’t picked up by the mic, so you’re hearing Scott answer questions you haven’t heard and while you can generally piece together what the question was, it’s a little frustrating.

Overall though, you could just imagine that hanging with Scott down at the pub would not be much different to the conversation he has on stage and in that way, it’s really a cool way to spend a bit of time getting to know some of the crazy shit that goes on behind-the-scenes and getting to know the guy behind the guitar.